As I write this review, the 2023 Safari Ltd. Wings of the World Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa) is currently en route to me. I thought it would be a good opportunity to review the 2010 rendition by Bullyland, which the Safari figure will replace, before it goes into the sales/trade/donation bin. When the Safari figure was announced, I had no initial intention of getting it. Not that I didn’t like it, but I just didn’t feel the Bullyland figure needed replacement. After a lot of engaging discussion on the Animal Toy Forum, it was brought to my attention two anatomical errors in the Bullyland figure, one is more subtle but the other is more glaring that I never took notice of (more on those errors later). These errors prompted me to pursue the Safari figure after all. Forum member Gwangi briefly touched on the biology and geographic distribution of this species in his review of the Safari figure, so herein I’ll just focus on the figure itself.
Because the figure is sculpted with its wings spread, and the wings are pliable enough to be flatted for the purpose of measuring, it has a wingspan of 13.0 cm. This puts the figure at a scale of roughly 1:10.8-1:11.7 (so, roughly 1:11 on average).
The overall sculpt is very nice with many individual feathers sculpted and textured. The owl is featured in a very dynamic pose! The wings are spread (as previously mentioned) and the tail is fanned out. It’s legs are pointing forward, talons agape, as if it’s about to snatch up a lemming or a vole. This is where one of the first anatomical errors comes into play, and it is the one that ultimately made me decide to replace the figure with Safari’s. The arrangement of the toes is incorrect. The Great Grey Owl has zygodactyls feet, with two toes pointing forward and two pointing backwards. Unfortunately, that’s not what’s depicted on the Bullyland model. This one has three forward and one backwards, which would be accurate for a Barn Owl, but not a Great Grey.
The other error, which is a little more subtle and forgiving, comes on the facial disc. The Bullyland figure is sculpted with lines radiating from the eye when in reality they have concentric circles around the eye. One could argue these lines represent texture of individual feathers, but once you become aware of them, they do look like they are indeed oriented in the wrong direction!
The paint job on this figure is nice but subtle. One of the biggest complaints of the Safari figure when it was first announced (including my initial reaction) was that the colors were too bold, especially on the face. This Bullyland figure is essentially the opposite, it’s almost too subtle, but one must remember that was a common trend when this figure was produced 13 years ago. They made some attempt to emphasize the white ‘X’ between the eyes, and the beak is yellow, as are the eyes.
Overall, this isn’t a bad rendition of the Great Grey Owl, outside of the two aforementioned anatomical errors. For many years this was a very popular figure, but mainly I think because it didn’t have any competition. When recent versions by China-based Naturalism and now Safari Ltd., I wonder how long this figure’s popularity will last. It was retired in 2014 and can be very difficult to find. I bought mine from a forum member a year or two ago, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen them on eBay searches. Maybe that will change as more people like myself replace theirs with the Safari version? Only time will tell…